Editor’s Afterword: Completed just after my first year of university, this issue is somewhat of a breakthrough. For one, it was the first issue to be professionally printed and it’s better designed than any of the past issues (it actually even has a cleaner, more readable layout than the later issues 6 through 8). I’m quite fond of this issue. I had left behind most of the juvenile grade-school humour that makes it difficult for me to read my earliest issues, while I had yet to develop the near madness that persisted through issues six through eight. As such, if I might say so myself, I still find the issue to be quite readable. The Tricky interview, done by Jason, is with Martina Topley-Bird (there is an interview with Tricky himself in the next issue, #6). Jason also contributed the Morphine piece, an interview with the late Mark Sandman. The Boo Radleys interview was a particular highlight for me. I had met their principal songwriter Martin Carr backstage at Lollapalooza in Summer 1994, and I vaguely recall that I’d gotten the band’s contact information in order to arrange this interview later. Their album Giant Steps remains one of my all-time favourites. This issue also has some extended reviews of albums from the Too Pure label, since the Too Pure records were just being released in North America through the American label. Laika, a Too Pure label artist, is interviewed in this issue; unfortunately, I made a mess of a subsequent Laika interview I did, so I’m glad this issue’s article captured some good material of a band I greatly liked over the years. The talk with Main’s Robert Hampson was a memorable one for me. Finally, the interview with Pizzicato Five of Japan holds fond memories for me. I had an amazing night at their concert earlier that year at Vancouver’s Starfish Room, while the interview was done by fax. That same spring I had discovered the nouvelle vague films of Jean Luc Godard, and I was excited because the influence of Godard on Pizzicato Five was quite apparent.